Elvissey by Jack Womack Read Free Book Online Page B

Over there," said Leverett, his smile unchanging.
His simplest reaction impressed me as long-practiced and
heartknown, if not heartfelt. I didn't distrust Leverett more
or less than any for whom I worked, supposed co-believer of
ours in God and Godness though he might be; John, of
suspicious mind, forever reattuned to those around him,
and so kept greater distance. Once I termed Leverett avuncular; John said he'd never allow him near children, whosever they were. "It's a dream mission, truly. Over there you'll
see how we all could have gone."
    "I've concerns," said John.
    "Allow me to mentor," he said, his eyes dog-eager and as
dark. "It's what I'm made for. No policy better than honesty.
Detail deepest thoughts. What's felt?" I silenced, lipstill; by
then numberless tests had come so unexpectedly, so often,
that I considered at length the simplest inquiries. "Relax,"
he said. "No answer wrong here. What troubles?"
    "The polarization," John said. "Madam's disbelief
unyields, yet with each meet your spiel intenses till we seem
stopping short of reinventing wheels. The difference troubles overmuch."
    "Mister O'Malley approves full," said Leverett, reclining
in his unpadded chair. "All have opinions, his matter most."
He gestured toward the portrait of his male predecessor, a middleage man of unsettling look whose painted stare blistered whomever his eyes sighted. "Timeover there've been
questions and qualms incompany over method and purpose.
Mister Leibson always contraried if the betterment of the
company demanded. Timeover he was proven right."

    "He was exed, nonetheless," John said. "Might history
repeat?"
    "It was an interfamilial matter," said Leverett. "Mrs. Dryden. Mindaddled. You know the tales. A tragedy, nonetheless. My blessing, that I was mentored by one so great. Mister
Liebson enabled Dryco to be what it became."
    Leverett's other predecessor was female, and named Joanna, or so worded the frame's inscription. Her face interested me more than Liebson's; her fear, unlike his, directed
not out but in. Hers was a twentieth-century face, haloed
with blond hair, staring with sleepless look, countenancing
lightbright with unaccepted pain. She'd suicided as well, or
so Leverett told; yet another mindaddled, he said.
    . "Then what so necessaries Dryco's regooding?" John
asked.
    "Changing circumstance," Leverett said, "as told. Regooding's a simple process. Minor readjustments, a clock's
winding, new soles on the shoes. Some improve at will," he
said, looking at me. "Elvii, sadly, respond to no prompts
other than their own. As Mister O'Malley has said, sense
goes unheard. Ergo, we'll calm them as they wish, since
nothing else suffices."
    "A corresponding E's existence is unassured," John said.
    "Statistics evidence an eighty per chance." said Leverett.
"Numbers' comfort satisfies."
    "Statistics lie, told to lie," John said. His damp forehead
beaded, and he tempered so, that I feared he'd forgotten to
medicate. I took his hand, hoping to calm; he slipped free
of my grip. "If the goal's nonexistent, all's pointless."
    "Nonexistent? Unknown unless tried," said Leverett.
"We'll tack a different course in event of unsuccess, but one attempt's demanded. Ends justify means, however the turnout. What concerns so, as the date nears and all plans ready
to engage?"

    "Promotion's assured?"John asked, pointing towards me,
seeming unmindful of his own proposed raise. Leverett sat
back in his chair; examined us-still smiling-as if he were
our father, and was disappointed we'd found it necessary to
ask about something promised, however often he'd reneged
in the past.
    "Doubled salaries in either circumstance," he said. "If all
successes, unimaginable fulfillment is certified as contracted. Our world and all its wonders will lay platterways
before you."
    John shrugged, quieted. A different concern beset my
mind. "I discussed particulars of medical problems with
Madam-"
    "She awared me,"